The Mad Men Cast on the Show’s Split Final Season and Those Post-Emmys Skinny-Dipping Rumors

Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, and January Jones., By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

On Friday night, Vanity Fairand Maybelline co-hosted an Emmy celebration for Mad Men, the AMC drama that will be entering this Sunday’s awards show with a robust 12 nominations. Fortunately for everyone involved, the pool-side soirée at the Chateau Marmont bore little resemblance to the pool-side Hollywood romp attended by Don, Roger, and Harry last season on Mad Men’s “A Tale of Two Cities” episode, as there were no hashish-induced hallucinations or situations that demanded Roger Sterling’s emergency resuscitation, by our tally.

There was, however, a perfectly respectable amount of drinking and gentlemanly smoking done by guests, who mingled with co-stars Jon Hamm (wearing a suit and full, playoff-style Emmy beard), January Jones, Jessica Paré, Elisabeth Moss, Rich Sommer, Kevin Rahm, and Linda Cardellini, as well as Mad Men mastermind Matthew Weiner. As cigarette girls wound through the Chateau’s breezy backyard with trays of bedazzled Maybelline mascara tubes, we picked the brains of the Mad Men cast, asking about their rumored post-Emmys ritual and what they thought of AMC’s announcement that the show’s final season would be split into two.

Contrary to one report on Friday, Weiner told us that he was not bothered by the network’s plans, which he was informed of before he began writing the show’s final season(s) five weeks ago. “This was their decision and I thought, ‘All right, I can’t argue with you if this [strategy] is what worked for Breaking Bad,’” Weiner told us. “It’s not the way I’ve done it before, but 78 or 80 episodes into it, I welcome the challenge.” Explaining that he and the crew will still film the final season at once, freeing cast members to move on to other projects, he said, “It’s kind of the best of both worlds because we’ll get to be finished with the show but get to enjoy the show being on the air. I would hope that [viewers] would trust me to know that just because [each mini-season will be] seven episodes does not mean that it will not be worth watching.”

Similarly unfazed by the news was January Jones, who said that she had “just heard about” AMC’s decision but was fine with it. “I mean, any opportunity to drag [the series] out as long as possible,” the actress said, would be a good thing, especially since her character, Betty, got her groove back last season. With a dramatic weight loss, surge in confidence, and bolstered relationship with her daughter Sally, Jones said she was very satisfied with her character’s arc this past go-round. “I loved the whole season,” she told us. “I loved that Betty got her strength and her beauty again. Any scenes with Jon and Kiernan [Shipka, who plays Sally], I always enjoy.”

Nearby, Jessica Paré, who plays Don Draper’s current beleaguered wife, Megan, told us that she is staying optimistic about Megan and Don’s future. Even though Don reneged on his promise to move to California with Megan so that she could officially start her career, Paré said, “if it were up to me, she would get everything she wanted, and the two of them would be happy together forever.” Joking, she added, “And that’s why I’m not a writer.”

After fully embracing her character at the end of Season Five (even though she admits Megan “can be capricious and, I guess, high maintenance”), Paré said that she did feel a twinge of jealousy last season while watching Don have an affair with their neighbor, Sylvia. “But it’s purely because I have such a kinship with Megan,” she explained. “I want Megan to be O.K., to be happy. So when I see Don doing something that would hurt Megan, I feel upset for her.” (Despite those feelings, Paré and Linda Cardellini, who plays Sylvia, seemed delightfully and genuinely close at the party last night.)

When we sat down with Cardellini, the Freaks and Geeks alum said that she is still coming to grips with the fact that she played Don Draper’s mistress on the show. “I had no idea that’s what I would be doing when I took the role!” Cardellini told us. “They assured me it would be a good part, but they wouldn’t tell me anything about it. But I was a fan of the show, and I thought if I was going to trust anybody, Matt Weiner and Mad Men would probably be the right people.” Cardellini, who earned her first Emmy nomination for her work on the series, added, “I’m so happy the way everything turned out.”

Asked whether she thinks Sylvia will return next season, Cardellini swore ignorance. “I have no idea. Nobody will tell me anything, and I am used to the silence! If Sylvia comes back, that would be amazing,” she said before adding, tongue-in-cheek, “And if she doesn’t, she went out with a bang!”

The Mad Men Cast on the Show’s Split Final Season and Those Post-Emmys Skinny-Dipping Rumors

Jon Hamm and* *Jennifer Westfeldt.

Photo: By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

Rich Sommer and Elisabeth Moss.

Photo: By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

January Jones.

Photo: By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Jessica Paré.

Photo: By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Linda Cardellini and Elisabeth Moss.

Photo: By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

Teyonah Parris.

Photo: By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Kiernan Shipka and Jon Hamm.

Photo: By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Jon Hamm and* *Jennifer Westfeldt.

By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

Rich Sommer and Elisabeth Moss.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

January Jones.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Jessica Paré.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Matthew Weiner.

By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

Jay Ferguson, Kevin Rahm, and Ben Feldman.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Linda Cardellini and Elisabeth Moss.

By Jeff Vespa/WireImage.

Teyonah Parris.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

Kiernan Shipka and Jon Hamm.

By Donato Sardella/WireImage.

As the party wound down, there was one more Mad Men mini-mystery that we wanted to attempt to crack. Last year at Emmy-time, Rich Sommer, who plays the flamboyantly wardrobed Harry Crane, told us that he and several co-stars had begun a post-Emmys skinny-dipping tradition, and January Jones seemed to have a similar recollection: “I think I heard about Rich doing it once,” Jones told us. “The only other times I’ve heard about it, is when people jumped in in their clothes but no skinny-dipping.”

Jay R. Ferguson, who plays Stan Rizzo, also played somewhat coy. “I’ve heard about this tradition,” Ferguson demurred. “The only detail I can give you is that I have opted out of that tradition in years past, but this year, I might join the club.”

Surprisingly, it was Matthew Weiner who seemed most forthcoming about the matter. “I know all about it, and I am a part of it!” Weiner said about Mad Men’s apparent formalwear-disrobing ritual. “I have not skinny-dipped, but I have been in the pool. Only some of them skinny-dip. That’s all I’m going to say. But lots of people are in that pool.”

Several minutes later, when we asked Jon Hamm about the rumor, he tried to cover up with the help of fellow cast member and Emmy nominee Elisabeth Moss. “There has never been skinny-dipping,” Hamm corrected us.

When we mentioned that Weiner had just confirmed the story, Moss jumped in to defend Hamm. “Notorious liar,” she deadpanned about Weiner. “Notorious.”

“The man has a strange relationship with the truth,” Hamm quickly added. (While it seemed like a clever deflection, after watching Don Draper’s six-season-long struggle with veracity, we can’t help but admit that the actor has a point.)

Since we had both Moss and Hamm—Peggy and Don—together for that fleeting moment, we couldn’t help but ask what the series’ star thought when Peggy memorably sat down in Don’s chair, seemingly inheriting his office and position, at the end of last season’s finale.

“It makes sense,” Hamm said, casting a glance Moss’s way, before delivering a line that could very well have come from Don’s mouth: “She’s been trying to get in that chair for a long time.”

According to Matthew Weiner last night, filming for Mad Men’s final two seasons begins in about a month.